10GBASE-T cabling and RFI: Building a Robust 10GBASE-T Solution

Since 10BASE-T Ethernet, twisted pair cabling is and has been the most ubiquitous media type for wired LAN communications. With all the advantages of low cost, simple-to use cabling, installations of10GBASE-T are running at one thousand times (1000x) the data rate of 10BASE-T. As data rates increased, internal noise on the cable began to be addressed. At 10GBASE-T data rates, cable configuration and signal processing techniques were not enough to handle external sources of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI). Using a dedicated 5th Channel receiver, signal processing, and Fast Retrain algorithms, external RFI is eliminated in nearly all cases, making the 10GBASE-T LAN essentially noise-proof in the data center environment.

Since 10BASE-T Ethernet, twisted pair cabling is and has been the most ubiquitous media type for wired LAN communications. With all the advantages of low cost, simple-to use cabling, installations of10GBASE-T are running at one thousand times (1000x) the data rate of 10BASE-T. As data rates increased, internal noise on the cable began to be addressed. At 10GBASE-T data rates, cable configuration and signal processing techniques were not enough to handle external sources of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI). Using a dedicated 5th Channel receiver, signal processing, and Fast Retrain algorithms, external RFI is eliminated in nearly all cases, making the 10GBASE-T LAN essentially noise-proof in the data center environment.